Plane crash in Iran kills 302
A plane carrying 302 people, all military personnel, crashed in southern Iran tonight, killing all on board, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
The plane was on a domestic flight from Zahedan, on the Pakistan border, to Kerman, about 500 miles south-east of Tehran. It crashed in a mountainous area about 22 miles from its destination.
Relief workers were at the site.
The plane lost contact with the control tower at 5.30pm local time (2pm Irish time).
IRNA reported that all on board the plane had died. It said the plane’s passengers and crew were all members of the elite Revolutionary Guards.
No reasons were given for the crash and reports did not address the possibility of terrorism.
There was heavy snowfall in many parts of Iran on Tuesday and today, including in Zahedan, which had not seen snow in three years.
An official said the military forces had visited the impoverished Sistan-Baluchestan province, of which Zahedan is the capital, for an “important duty”. The military corps is seen as a defender of Iran’s Islamic regime.
The plane was a Russian-made Antonov airliner. There were no more details available on the crash.
The government issued a statement offering condolences to the families of the victims.
Iranians were preparing for an Islamic holiday tomorrow, the feast of Velayat, when Shi’ites believe Islam’s prophet Mohammad appointed his son-in-law, Ali, as his successor.
The hard-line evening daily Kayhan reported Wednesday that security forces had confiscated three surface-to-air missiles from drug smugglers in south-eastern Iran. It did not say when the operation took place.
Tonight’s crash was the latest in a string of air disasters in Iran involving mostly Russian-built airliners.
Last December, Transportation Minister Ahmad Khorram acknowledged that Iran’s air industry was suffering from US sanctions and warned there would be more air disasters if sanctions on purchase of US-made planes were not lifted.
He spoke days after the crash on December 23 of a Ukrainian An-140 aircraft, which killed all the estimated 46 scientists aboard.
In February 2002, the Russian-made Tupolev Tu-154 airliner, carrying 119 people, smashed into snow-covered mountains not far from its destination of Khorramabad, 230 miles south-west of Tehran.
In May 2001, the Russian-made YAK-40 plane crashed in bad weather in northern Iran killing all 30 people on board, including the then transport minister, Rahman Dadman, and seven MPs.
Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran has been forced to supplement its fleet of Boeing and European-made Airbus airliners with planes bought or leased from the former Soviet Union.
